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(Accepted for publication 11 February 2018)
Cum quod daturspectabis, et dantemadspice.
[Whilst you look at the gift, also look at the giver]
SENECA (Thyestes, III: 416)
In this paper I examine the overdetermined significance of the small gifts offered to me by my analytic patient, Miss A. — in particular, her wish to escape from the memory, re-lived in the transference, of her deprived childhood, into the fantasy of an extra-analytical relationship. Miss A's presents, mostly cards, were hidden in the envelope containing the money for my fees and they were never openly talked about. Their meanings emerged, in the course of the analysis, as focusing on early pre-œdipal conflicts of oral, anal and phallic-intrusive quality. The analysis of Miss A's communications through gifts allowed us to explore and understand a number of important aspects of her personality and psychopathology.